Is the UK facing a parking EPIDEMIC?

Over the next few months we will be delving deeper into how the suite of products offered at Liftshare can benefit an organisation, starting with how Liftshare can help reduce the demand for parking at your organisation.

In 2012, the RAC foundation released a parking factsheet which estimated that there are 39 million parking acts taking place every day, with 28% of them being for work – that’s nearly 11 million acts of parking for work in the UK – per day. It would appear that the perception of parking at work is becoming a right and not a privilege, with some employers struggling to recruit due to lack of parking or no available capacity to offer staff – with some waiting lists for a parking space lasting years. Employers that lack sufficient parking also suffer from colleagues choosing to double or triple park, causing altercations within the working environment, or even worse, illegal parking. Are we facing a parking epidemic?

“Create more parking spaces, it’s a no-brainer!” This is a very costly option, with a typical surface car park costing up to £2000per space to create, not including upkeep in its lifetime. Add to that the possibility of a workplace parking levy (with charges of around £1000 per space payable to the local council) being introduced into at least 10 regions, and businesses are looking at a very costly way of ensuring their staff can travel to work by car.

So, what’s the answer? By reducing the number of vehicles travelling to your organisation, the less parking spaces you’ll need. This doesn’t mean changing your staff’s travel behaviours to walking, cycling or even public transport (but we can help you with that, too), but encourage staff to share their car journeys. If five people switch from commuting on their own to sharing their journey in one car, four spaces can be freed up in your car park. Now that really is a no-brainer! Liftshare has the software and knowledge to make this task easy for your organisation, by connecting drivers to passengers and giving you a wealth of data regarding how many staff have signed up and converted to sharers, and subsequently how much your organisation is saving such as CO2, road miles and money. Not only that, with our Smart Parking tool we are able to give you real-time validation of who is carsharing within your business, so you can reward and manage appropriately.

A client who successfully implemented a Liftshare scheme and seen the benefits impact their car park is Great Western Hospitals, who have been able to release 250 parking spaces to patients, which were previously being used by staff member’s cars.

Think Liftshare could help reduce the impact on your organisation’s car park? Get in touch with us today by email or give us a call on 01603 389321.

Next, we will be focussing in on how Liftshare can help you achieve your organisations sustainability and CSR goals, just like our client Diageo.